Assembling a map from pieces provided by strangers
August 18, 2013 9:03 AM   Subscribe

Artist Nobutaka Aozaki is creating a map of Manhattan made up entirely of hand-drawn maps given to him by strangers, which he solicits by asking for directions. The project, called From Here to There, is ongoing, and currently the main map is roughly 3' by 10'.
posted by ricochet biscuit (8 comments total) 26 users marked this as a favorite
 
this is such a brilliant idea. I hope he is able to eventually grow it to NY, then the states, then the world. maybe there is an mechanical turk art project in here? or is that not something that people do any more?
posted by jonbro at 9:10 AM on August 18, 2013


This is pure genius.
posted by orme at 9:14 AM on August 18, 2013


The pizza plate one just makes me feel good about things in general.

also a little hungry
posted by elizardbits at 9:17 AM on August 18, 2013 [2 favorites]


That is a cool project. It's a very nifty idea. I also like the cross-section of people he's asking. (Even Elmo.) And I like the materials listed: "Questions, various pens and paper".

What does he do about scaling problems? I suppose he always has a specific route/area in mind. But still, what if someone draws it way too big, or too large? Is there a pile of reject map scraps somewhere?
posted by jiawen at 9:35 AM on August 18, 2013


I think the scaling problems will be part of what makes it interesting to look at. For a comparison, look at some of David Hockney's polaroid grid collages - how the individual pictures don't quite exactly match up is part of what drives the work.
posted by LionIndex at 9:43 AM on August 18, 2013 [2 favorites]


Neat!
Although I think the only area of Manhattan where you might actually need a map is south of Houston, and mayyyybe the West Village. The rest of the map is going to look like a numbered grid.
posted by pravit at 1:49 PM on August 18, 2013


The rest of the map is going to look like a numbered grid.

Some people navigate by landmarks. If someone were to give you directions from, say, Central Park West and West 76th and Amsterdam and West 72nd, the map is probably going to have you turn at the Dakota.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:45 PM on August 18, 2013


I think that's the coolest thing about this project, really. Manhattan is a rigid grid, but the result of this project will be very disorderly and probably even chaotic. It's really interesting to see the mundane and structured filtered through a ton of individual lenses and stitched together into a glorious mishmash of unique circumstantial realities that represent the city but no longer literally, objectively, discretely describe it.

I'd encourage anyone intrigued by this project to read this Wikipedia page, "Map–territory relation" (and maybe even move on from there!), which begins:

"The map–territory relation describes the relationship between an object and a representation of that object, as in the relation between a geographical territory and a map of it. Polish-American scientist and philosopher Alfred Korzybski remarked that "the map is not the territory", encapsulating his view that an abstraction derived from something, or a reaction to it, is not the thing itself. Korzybski held that many people do confuse maps with territories, that is, confuse models of reality with reality itself.

Jiddu Krishnamurti, the Indian philosopher, described it thus, "The description is not the described", to which he has further exemplified: "it is like a man who is hungry. Any amount of description of the right kind of food will never satisfy him. He is hungry, he wants food."

posted by Corinth at 9:25 PM on August 18, 2013


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